Be Our Guest Virtual Race

I participated in the "Be Our Guest" Beastly challenge. Which was a 5k for a Belle medal and then 13.1 miles for the Beast medal and then you would get an additional rose medal for completing the challenge. Well, since I don't run half marathons yet, I combined my miles from a few runs to earn all 3 medals! 

It's a bird, No, it's a plane!! Soaring 10k!

On Sept 22nd, during a training run I ran my Jost Running "September Soaring 10k".
Now, I actually had to run more than 6.2 miles. An 8 mile run was on my training schedule for that day.  So the first 6.2 miles went towards my Soaring 10k and then rest was just icing on the cake! I was running a tad slower than I normally do, but I soared through the first 6.2 miles in 1:10:01... pretty cool time, right?

I had a cool personalized bib to wear.

When I got home, I submitted my results to Jost Running so that my name could be placed on their website. Remember from last month - this is probably my favorite part since I'm competitive and like to see where I finish.
Right now I'm representing the middle of the pack at #8.

Today, my medal arrived. I tore open the package like a little kid on Christmas and out slid not one, but 2 pretty airplane medals.
The team at Jost Running, once again, sent me both the medals for the 5k/10 which is the blue & white plane and the 1/2 & full marathon which is the yellow & green plane. And a sweet note too!
Check out these beauties!

The 5k/10k medal, which is the one I earned, is white with pretty blue & red glitter.
The 1/2 & full marathon medal is all glitter - yellow, green & red.
They are both very well made, just like the medals in the previous month. And I love the added touch this time around of the customized ribbons - they both say "Jost Running Soaring 2013"
These medals definitely do not disappoint!

My son saw the medals and was eyeing the yellow/green one (green is his favorite color)  so I let him try it on.  

He likes to run with me so he has a few medals of his own. He thought this one was very cool and guess where the green one ended up? You guessed it - his medal rack. He won't be running a half marathon any time soon, but I'm definitely going to make him go for a run with me sometime soon to earn it! =)


Want a sneak peek of Jost Running's October medal? These look AMAZING and I can't wait to get my hands on it! Ever need a bottle opener but can't find one... that won't be a problem anymore =)

So what are you waiting for? Head over to www.Jostrunning.com to sign up for your Oktoberfest medal. And use the code Carbload to get 15% off! ENJOY =)

Rockin 'n Rollin in Providence!

I really wanted to do my local Rock 'n Roll 1/2 marathon, but I wouldn't be quite up to that distance in my training schedule yet, so my friend (who is running the Tinker Bell 1/2 with me) and I decided to sign up for the half marathon relay. It wasn't split evenly down the middle, so I volunteered for the 8 mile portion... I was feeling a little crazy, but up for the challenge.

We picked up our bibs the day before and checked out the expo. And because we were doing the relay, we also got drum stick "batons" to pass off to each other during the race (which we decided not to use)

I went to bed early the night before, because my "nice" alarm was set to go off at 4:55am, followed by a "mean", louder alarm at 5am. Luckily, I was able to drag myself out of bed at the 4:55 alarm and did not need the mean one to yell at me.
I got ready quickly and then stepped outside.... BRRRRR, it was freezing! Ran back inside to get a long sleeve shirt and then I was ready! Went & picked up my friend and then drove to Providence.

I was cold out, ok, freezing!... about 48 degrees, while I walked with my friend to the start line to make sure she was settled & ready.  And then I headed off to the bus stop. See, they don't provide us transportation to & from the relay transition point so it was up to us to provide our own. I opted to take the city bus (as advised by the RnR official people), which turned out to be an extremely hectic experience. I got to the bus station with plenty of time & started chatting with some other fellow 2nd leg relay racers.
As we stood around waiting for our bus, 5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins went by... it was late! And we started to panic. What if we didn't make it to the transition point in time for our partners? Just as we were trying to decide if we should get a cab & split the cost, the bus showed up. And he was unaware that he had to take 10 (yes, only 10 out of 150... apparently everyone else decided to park near the transition point) people to a race and that streets were closed. Luckily we had an angel among us. She wasn't running the race, but she jumped on the bus with us & was able to navigate the bus onto the high way and around the city to the transition point.
And just in the nick of time too! As soon as I got there, I got a text from my friend that she was at mile 4 - only 1 mile to 'relax' from my hectic bus experience before it was my turn to run.

I had a blast cheering the 1/2 marathoners running by and listening to the band playing.
"Elvis" was at the relay transition point handing out medals to the relay participants as they finished their leg

A few minute later, I saw my friend running towards me. I said bye & good luck to my 2nd leg new 'bus riding' friends and took off! At first it felt a little odd to be joining the rest of the 1/2 marathoners so late in the race, but after a few minutes, I fit right in and the first mile passed in no time!  There was a band at every mile marker to keep us entertained.
I was also entertained by the signs I saw from spectators watching. Some memorable ones I saw were "Why do all the cute ones run away.", "Don't poop", "Nice legs", "Smile if you're not wearing any underwear" (ok, YOU try not to smile after reading that one)

The first 4 miles of my leg were pretty hilly. My leg was advertised as "relatively flat" LIES!!!!! ALL LIES! Around the 8.5 mile mark (my 3.5 mile mark), I approached what was told was the last hill and as I walked up the hill, I ditched my long sleeve shirt because I was nice & toasty, finally! But I knew that wasn't really the last hill - there was a small incline at the 13 mile mark - yup, they make us run uphill for the last tenth of a mile! But I would let it slide.... for now!

At the mile 9 mark, I realized my leg was half over already! It sure did pass by fast. And I knew i had to be on the look out for the 3 Little Pigs Challenge tent at the 9.8 mile mark to get my piggy medal. I definitely didn't have to look too hard - as the tent was easy visable with it's piggy balloons and pig mascot hanging out in the road. but boy was I surprised when the lady handed me a HUGE medal... well, 2 of them actually, because my friend did the challenge too & I was picking up for her as well. I stuffed one into my ifitness belt, which almost didn't fit, and then hung mine around my neck. Let me tell you, that medal was big, HEAVY (I had to run 3 miles with it!) and sparkly. I LOVE IT!

The last 3 miles mostly consisted of a big loop - which I wasn't too thrilled about, but it turned out to be no big deal at all. I normally don't like to run loops because it makes me want to cheat & cut across to the other runners coming at me. lol. But I didn't cheat, I promise - you can even check my Garmin!

The last 3 miles were filled with photographers snapping pics every where i looked. I felt like I was being chased by the paparazzi!
As I was closing in on the 13 mile mark, I ran by the bus station and laughed... how ironic that I had come full circle! A few young kids, about the same age as my kids, were on the sidewalk waiting anxiously to see their parents go by. They gave me a high five as I ran by and it almost felt as if my kids were there cheering me onto the finish.
Up the small incline and then there was the finish! and I saw my friend off to the side cheering me on as I passed by her to the finish where I thrust my hands up in the air in victory - something I've felt cheesy doing at the finish line in past races, but not this time!

I got my medal and then had water, chocolate milk, bananas, protein bars, etc shoved at me from every side. I grabbed what I could, posed for a picture and then headed off to find my friend & relax for a minute. 

Overall, apart from the almost sticky bus situation, it was a great race... hills & all. I want to do it again next year & i plan on doing the entire half myself!


My hard earned bling

Color Us RAD!!! 5k

Today I participated in a "Fun" 5k called 'Color Me Rad' with my boys, my mom, my aunt, my cousins and some friends.
We arrived early so we could get our team shirts - we were part of a team for a charity called Jayla's Wings.  And pose for some fun photo ops.

Then the race began & it was time to get colored!
We ran 3 miles through a  big open field (and some woods) behind Seekonk Speedway. The start & finish line were both on the track, which was cool. But the course was kind of scary... uneven terrain through the woods. I was worried I would hurt myself, so I tried to take it easy but all my son wanted to do was RUN!  We went through 4 different "color" areas - one at each km. Then we ran across the finish line and joined the color throw to get even more color on us

Cheshire Challenge

Today I had an 8 mile run on my training calendar. I haven't run a long run alone in about a month. The last few long runs I've done have been races. So I was kind of dreading the long run and then to top it off, I woke up this morning and it was down pouring heavily. I don't mind running in the (light) rain in the summer, but running in rain when it's cooler weather is not fun.
But, despite the rain, I got out of bed when my alarm went off and got ready to head out of my running, hoping & praying the rain would stop.
Just as I pulled into the parking lot of the bike path, the rain stopped!
But, the rain must have kept everyone home that morning, because I didn't see anyone for the first 4 miles! highly unusual, since it's usually a busy bike path. But I did see a deer cross the path right in front of me around mile 2.

I hit mile 4, the turn around point and I felt pretty good. My time was great - I was set to PR.... and then things started to fall apart. I started to lose steam and get slower & slower. I kept pushing through, still hoping to pull it together for a PR.
When I finished - at 1:32:09, I thought I hit a PR... I was so sure my last 8 mile time was 1:33:50. But when I got home and checked my data on the garmin website I realized that my last 8 mile time was 1:31:50... so I missed my PR by 20 seconds. I was bummed, but at least I did it!!

And I earned a cool, new, HUGE medal! I decided that because this medal was so big, it deserved more than a 10k (6.2 miles)... it deserved 8 miles!

Hang 10!!

While searching online for races that give cool medals, as I do from time to time (ok... several times a week! LOL) I found a half marathon in the local area that has a surfboard shaped medal.
I'm not quite up to the milage for a half marathon yet, so I thought a lot about it - I could run as much as I could and then walk the rest. But then I found out that they had a 5k (new this year) and that gave a super cool medal too.
Phew, I was saved from doing a 1/2 marathon! And now my son could do the 5k with me.

So today, my son and I participated in the Surftown 5k race. It was an early & chilly (4:30 am) wake up call, but my son who is 7 did great! He loved watching the sun rise! The start of the race took place at...you guessed it, the beach! So after we checked in and got our bibs, we took the opportunity to check out the beach and take some photos with the ocean behind us.

At 8:00 am (a half hour late) the race started for the half marathoners. It was pretty neat watching them all take off, as I'm usually in the crowd of runners, not watching them. Then about 10 minutes later it was our turn to get started. We started off towards the back of the pack but weaved our way up to about the middle of the pack.  We ran by a couple of cute beachy stores and restaurants and the smell of bacon wafted out of one of them and made our tummies grumble. The course was a flat, scenic 3 miles along the shoreline.
My son kept up a great pace, and didn't complain once about all the running.
We crossed the finish line together at 35:17 and were presented with our medals - cool boogie boards! I was still jealous of the surfboards, the but boogie board would do... for now, at least!

We walked over to grab some refreshments and checked out our official finish time - just to find out that my son came in 3rd in his age group. So we stuck around for the awards - which was a cool Surftown visor.

By the time we headed home we had been up for 6 hours already and were pretty exhausted, but overall we had a blast! I really enjoy running races with my son and I'm so very glad & blessed to be able to share these experiences with him.

Candy Land Sugar Rush Virtual 10k

This medal is ALL GLITTER! It's like a sugar coated candy!I  It makes me want to take a bite out of it... however, that would probably chip a tooth! LOL

And yes, I know I didn't do the entire 6.2. oops!

Run to the Rock 10k!

When I choose a race to run, I tend to look for a race that has a cool aspect to it - last weekend it was running along the cape cod canal from bridge to bridge. This time, I got to run to Plymouth rock! Yes, THAT Plymouth rock!

I got a cool green bib. The first bib I've gotten that has been personalized with the race name on it & a different color than white.

The morning started off rather cool (a plus!), but was comfortable by the time the race started.
When the gun sounded, we started off running. I knew there was a major hill coming at the mile 1 mark so I decided to skip doing my 4:1 intervals for the entire first mile and save my walking break for the hill. It worked out great! I was able to run the entire first mile, stopped right as the hill started to get steep, walked for 2 mins and then took off running again when we got to the top.
I thought that was the only hill on the course, but to my dismay it wasn't, however the other hills on the course weren't nearly as bad and I was able to get through them with no problems.
The course was a very windy course through a bunch of neighborhoods. By mile 4, I was wondering where the water was. lol.
We stopped at a busy intersection and the police directing traffic made us wait over a minute before we were allowed to run again. I'm pretty bitter about that! Had I not been held up, I could have finished a minute sooner and gotten a PR! But I did the best I could to make up the time and just kept trucking along.

FINALLY, around 5.5, I could see the water! I started to pick up speed. I ran by lots of cute little shops - all of which were a blur (I later found out I ran by a cupcake charlies. how did I miss cupcakes? LOL) and then there was the finish line!
I crossed at 1:08:37 - 3 mins faster than last weeks time. I was extremely happy with that. I got an awesome medal with the Mayflower on it and then made my way to get some chocolate vitamin water (my favorite after run drink!) and some snacks. 

Then I took in the sights - saw Plymouth rock for the first time in my life (does anyone really believe that's the actual rock the Pilgrims stepped on? How does anyone know for sure??) and saw the Mayflower II in the harbor. 

Overall, it was a great race! I would do it again next year for sure!

Home Run Series Baseball 1/2 marathon

My milage is currently not up to 13.1 miles just yet... I'm working on it.
But in addition to receiving the Home Run Series Hot Dog 5k medal that I posted about a few weeks ago, I also received the Baseball 1/2 marathon medal. I wanted to earn the medal, so I split up the distance over a few runs.
Between 4 runs, I ended up going over 13.1 miles, but I figured the rest is just icing on the cake =)


The medal itself is huge (3.5 inches) and is fully covered in glitter... see how it sparkles in the picture?